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James (Jimi) Marshall Hendrix (November 27, 1942 — September 18, 1970) was an American musician, widely regarded by other musicians, listeners and critics as one of the best and most creative electric guitarists of all time. After playing in back-up bands for artists like Little Richard and the Isley Brothers, he was discovered and managed by Chas Chandler, who took him to London and made him a star as the lead singer and guitarist of The Jimi Hendrix Experience (Which included Noel Redding and Mitch Mitchell). First achieving success in England, his American breakthrough was at 1967's Monterey Pop Festival, where he managed to upstage The Who having destroyed their instruments by setting his guitar on fire. After the classic line-up of the Experience broke up, Hendrix formed Gypsy Sun and Rainbows (Which included Billy Cox, Mitch Mitchell, Larry Lee, Juma Sultan and Jerry Velez), which played at the legendary 1969 Woodstock festival, where Hendrix's apocalyptic performance ofThe Star-Spangled Banner pretty much revived a very tired crowd. This band didn't last long after Woodstock and was succeeded by the Band of Gypsys (which included Billy Cox and Buddy Miles). They broke up after two memorable gigs and a self-titled live album, after which Hendrix re-formed the Experience with Mitchell (Billy Cox replacing Noel Redding) in time for the 1970 Isle of Wight Festival. Died early at the age of 27 of choking on his vomit due to alcohol and drug overdose, the second (only around a year after Brian Jones) of several prominent rock artists to die at that age (although his blues roots have led some to say that he merely moved the curse from blues to rock, as the legendary Robert Johnson had died at 27, too).

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Hendrix was highly influenced by blues, jazz, R&B, and soul music; his amazing rhythm playing stemmed from his desire to make his guitar sound like an entire R&B backing band with horn section. In turn, he codified techniques and trends many other bands and artists had used, such as amplified feedback (done before by others, but Hendrix almost literally turned it Up to Eleven), creative use of electronic effects and extended improvisations. Although he arrived in London at a time when there was an entiregenerationofimpressiveguitarists reaching the peak of their powers, his peers were pretty quick to acknowledge him as The Ace: Pete Townshend recalled feeling sorry for Eric Clapton in that Clapton wanted to be able to play like Hendrix, but couldn't, whereas Townshend was glad that he himself 'never had any sense that I could even come close'. (The great guitarist Larry Coryell once attempted to beat Hendrix in a cutting contest; according to eyewitnesses, Hendrix blew him off the stage with a single note.) His guitar style was also an influence on many later Hard Rock and Heavy Metal acts.

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Hendrix's musicianship, his experimental albums that did not stay strictly in one genre of music, and his aforementioned outrageous stage theatrics earned him enough of a reputation to make him one of the most prominent rock performers of the late '60s. Not for nothing was he selected as Woodstock's last artist to perform, after all. Ironically, this popularity wasn't quite reflected on radio in his lifetime, as related in a documentary produced after his death. Black radio, at the time entrenched in the likes of Aretha Franklin, James Brown and the roster of Motown Records amongst other, more straightforward rhythm and blues artists, wanted little to do with his heavy rock guitar sound. And many white rock radio stations, places one might have thought would be a more natural home for his songs, simply thought he sounded "too black." Contrasting this with his frequently standing-room-only crowds says a lot about the tastes of radio programmers compared to their audiences.

While many today mention him as the most influential guitarist of the era, his reputation was only consolidated after his death; his friend and rival Eric Clapton commemorated him with a cover version of Hendrix's song "Little Wing". Nevertheless, many guitarists who came after him were indeed influenced by both his work and his on-stage theatrics, including Ernie Isley, a latter-day member of the Isley Brothers, the same group Jimi used to play back-up for, and Brian May of Queen, whose first band in college actually opened for Jimi in 1967. His most conspicuous if not most profound legacy is to have inspired generations of metal guitarists, although bizarrely enough, Eddie Van Halen, the most Hendrixoid of them all, claims that his greatest influence was Clapton. At the time of Hendrix's death, he had plans to record with Miles Davis and to study music in more depth, possibly performing less and composing more; although it's sad to think of what was lost, Hendrix's expressive playing and extraordinary musical imagination continue to inspire musicians in all fields of music.

Studio and Live Discography (* = The Jimi Hendrix Experience, ** = Band of Gypsys):

1967 - Are You Experienced* note This edition of Are You Experienced was released only in the US. It changed the track listing, omitted Red House, Can You See Me, and Remember, and added Purple Haze, Hey Joe, and The Wind Cries Mary

Ancient Astronauts: "Up from the Skies", sung from the perspective of an alien visitor to Earth ("this here people farm") who had been here before thousands of years ago during an ice age, and has come back to observe how things have changed.

Given an opening, with "EXP," the first track on the album:

Mitch Mitchell: Good evening, ladies and gentlemen, and welcome to radio station EXP. We are interviewing a peculiar looking gentleman who goes by the name of Mr. Paul Caruso on the dodgy subject of "Are there or are there not Flying Saucers (or UFOs)." Please, Mr. Caruso, can you give us your regarded opinion on this nonsense about space ships, and even SPACE PEOPLE?!

Covered Up: Bob Dylan himself said that when he first heard Jimi's cover of "All Along the Watchtower", it was so perfectly played that Bob Dylan thought it was a Jimi-song, and he even prefers Jimi's version over his own original!

"Hey Joe" was a cover of a song written by Billy Roberts. The earliest known version was recorded by The Leaves.

Dead Artists Are Better: After his death in 1970, Jimi's reputation changed from being a popular guitarist to one of the great legends of Rock.

Genre-Busting: As a black bandleader with (frequently) white sidemen, schooled in blues and R&B and soul but playing rock and constantly reinventing his own music, Hendrix's entire career was about this.

George Lucas Altered Version: Voodoo Soup, compiled after his death by producer Allan Douglas, features newly recorded instrumentation by drummer Bruce Gary, who Hendrix never met or performed with, and whose most famous band, The Knack, was formed years after Hendrix had died. Voodoo Soup was intended as an "official" version of Hendrix' never-completed First Rays of the New Rising Sun album. Later, the Hendrix family presented a different reconstruction of that album, using the most complete recordings of the songs intended for the album, to avoid making decisions that Hendrix may not have approved of, in sharp contrast to Douglas, who believed that he was completing the album as Hendrix had intended with Voodoo Soup.

I Am Not Left-Handed: Actually he was, but he had a slightly irrational belief that left-handed guitars would be less well-made than right-handed guitars, so he reversed the strings on a Stratocaster and played it upside down. The result meant that he didn't sound quite like anyone else.

At least one biography claims that Jimi was actually ambidextrous, while slightly more southpaw.

Another claim states that he played upside-down righty guitars instead of lefty guitars so the dials and whammy bar would be easier to reach.

I Am the Band: With The Jimi Hendrix Experience, Gypsy Sun and Rainbows, and Band of Gypsys. Something that Noel Redding grew to resent.

Mixed Ancestry: Hendrix had Cherokee heritage from his mother and Black heritage from his father.

Mohs Scale of Rock and Metal Hardness: Ranging from 2 (Castles Made of Sand) up to 5 (Purple Haze, Cross Town Traffic), an unusually broad range especially for the period. Pretty much any later music in the range of 5-7 owes Hendrix a debt for opening these levels up to widespread use.

Mondegreen: As noted above, he created one of the most famous ever with "'Scuse me while I kiss the sky / this guy."

The Perfectionist: Not for nothing did he end up building his own recording studio. For example, he spent seven months recording "All Along the Watchtower", and most of that time was taken up with revising and redoing various individual guitar riffs.

Refuge in Audacity: The original cover of Electric Ladyland was simply a large group of nude women (that's front and back cover). This cover somehow managed to survive being used in the UK, but the USA (and later CD) version of the album uses Karl Ferris' psychedelic portrait. Interestingly enough, none of these were approved by Hendrix: He had explicitly told his record label that for the cover he wanted a Linda McCartney photo of him with some children, but the label proceeded to ignore him and pick what ended up on the final product.

Serious Business: His songs and likeness were the most difficult to license for Guitar Hero: World Tour, and part of the deal was that it would be impossible to use his characters to play songs he didn't sing. Even before then, the original Guitar Hero had a cover version of "Spanish Castle Magic" that had to be an instrumental, because even Jimi's voice is serious business to his estate. However, Hendrix was finally brought to the series in Lego Rock Band, with "Fire" appearing as its full, original studio version with vocals and no sign of Jimi himself (Lego or otherwise) in sight. Later, the entire contents of "Axis: Bold as Love" album came to the Rock Band Music Store.

"Crosstown Traffic" is in Rock Band 3 and more DLC kept coming. At this point, Harmonix has managed to include a huge chunk of his discography.

Signature Sound Effect: Actually a Signature Chord: Hendrix loved the sound of the 7#9 chord and used it all over songs like "Purple Haze", "Stone Free", "Voodoo Chile" and his version of "Killing Floor", to the point where musicians sometimes refer to it as the "Hendrix chord".

Sincerest Form of Flattery: Try to find a rock guitarist, any rock guitarist, whose style of playing doesn't owe something to Hendrix. We'll wait.

"There are two kinds of guitar players: Those who'll admit to being influenced by Hendrix, and liars." — Billy Cox

Small Name, Big Ego: Not Hendrix but Noel Redding, whose insistence that his songs deserved as much prominence as Hendrix's got him booted from the band.

The Southpaw: Actually contributed slightly to his sound. He frequently used a Fender Stratocaster, which has one of the pickups tilted. This gives each string a slightly different sound. As a lefty, however, Hendrix reversed the order of the strings, thereby reversing the order of the differences and giving his music a unique feel.

Step Up to the Microphone: "She's So Fine" from Axis: Bold as Love has Noel Redding on lead vocals and "Little Miss Strange" from Electric Ladyland have Redding and Mitch Mitchell sharing lead vocals. Both songs are written by Redding.

Technician vs. Performer: Despite his clear technical skills, he was closer to the Performer end of the spectrum. Had virtually no formal musical training, could barely even read music, but was blessed with natural talent, had a deep practical (if not theoretical) knowledge of harmony and rhythm, and near-perfect pitch — which was just as well since his playing style frequently made him go out of tune. (Nearly all live Hendrix albums feature him tuning up in mid-song.) Of course, all those years as a sideman in R&B bands didn't hurt. Towards the end of his life, he'd become aware that his conscious knowledge of music wasn't adequate to the things he wanted to do (he planned to compose more and play guitar less), and he planned to study music in more depth, which would have brought him closer to the Technician end.

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